Punch card controlled web feeding and printing apparatus



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ATTO/PNE Y? @SNR 3,194,154 PUNCH CARD coNTRoLLED WEB FEEDING AND PRINTING APPARATUS Filed July 5, 1951 E. R. MCKEAG July 13, 1965 4 sheets-sheet r4 INVENTOR. Fa/wes R. Mckeay ,QTTQ/QNE YS United States Patent O s rar isa PUNCH carin `Conrndrinn wan nnEnrNo AND rRiNTiNG Arranarus t Earnest R. McKeag, Ridgewood, NJ., assigner to Autos This invention relates to an improved method of printing checks, deposit slips, and other business and like documents.

This application is a continuation-in-part of my copending -application Serial No. 21,313, filed April 1l, 1960, now abandoned.

At the present time, it is customary to base print a supply of checks and like documents with the name of a bank and other indicia which is common to all checks in use by such bank, and later to print limited quantities of such items with indicia such as the name, address, and the account number of an individual bank customer. This has been done conventionally by locking up in a press chase rigid type or printing plates made therefrom relating to the individual bank customer, then, printing the number of checks required, for example 100 units, and then removing the type or printing plates from the chase of the printinU press .and inserting newly prepared type or plate material required by and related to the next bank customer. It is not practical, however, by this conventional printing and preparatory method, to produce personalized and account numbered checks -or deposit slips in quantities less than 100 units because of the` cost of the preparatory Work and the press make-ready in relation to the quantity of documents produced therefrom and for the reason that the manufacturer must set the selling price of the product `and service so produced higher than the purchaser will pay. However, there exists a great demand for such small quantities of personalized and account numbered bank documents. Up to the present time, this demand cannot be satisfied.

An object of this invention lis t-o provide 4an economically practical method of personalizing and account numbering of any quantity of checks or deposit slips in multiples of ten units, for instance, With the minimum quantity to be ten units.

It is a further object of this invention to eliminate the need for all conventional preparatory work common to conventional printing methodology such as typesetting, proofing, platemaking, and press make-ready. As will be `Seen in the disclosure to follow, this objective has been met without the usual wastage of type and/or printing plate material common to conventional printing methodology resulting from the necessity of changing from one press make-ready to another upon completion of the small quantity of personalized and account numbered batch run and without the necessity for preliminary typesetting, proofing, and platemaking.

Another object of this invent-ion in making the methods of this invention possible and practical is to avoid the necessity for interrupting the printing process for the purpose of making the type change required upon completion of one small batch quantity run to the start of the next.

A yet still further object of this invention is to provide a practical mechanically and electronically controlled mechanism whereby wheels bearing on their periphery the alphabetic and numeric characters are automatically set up according to predetermined instructions to electronic stori age and memory units forming an integral component part of the equipment represented by the invention, in less than ten seconds of time and once so set according to these predetermined instructions, such as bank customer name yand assigned account number, such type is locked in all reice spects in accurate alignment and positioned for the highly precise printing requirements of the type of printing to lbe referred hereinafter to as magnetic ink character recognition. p

In order to reduce the effort and time required in banks, means have been devised and are `now in use whereby indicia on checks, deposit slips, etc. may be optically, magnetically, or electrically sensed for the purpose of sorting, routing, and identiiication with the customer as by bank number, branch number, or account number respectively.

For this purpose, certain areas are designed to receive the respective indicia and certain standardized characters known as magnetic ink recognition characters, numeric in` format, are used, and these, having been imprinted with magnetic ink, may be sensed by automatic equipment and be translated thereby into various kinds of .actions or responses in machinery such as sorting, computing, and/ or high speed `data processing machines. However, .such indicia, for the purpose required by the banks, must be unique to each bank customer separately and different from required indicia for each other bank customer.

What has been s-aid about bank checks applies also to deposit slips `and other documents which must be ident-ined with one customer and one customer only. In the majority of cases, each bank customer requires only small quantities of documents such as deposit slips for use over a period of many months. To obtain such small batch quantities, each different from all other-s, is a problem solved by this invention. Here, again, the deposit slips and other pieces are preprinted in large quantities in general or standard form with some indicia applicable to all individuals and banks or bank branches, etc., and the indicia unique to and identifying each customer is afterprinted on a limited number of pieces by the methods and with the apparatus of this invention in the same manner as with checks.

Another object of this invention is to provide a simple and expedient method of printing and after-printing such pieces with such individual and/or general indicia without the necessity of feeding such Workpieces one by one to a printing press. Y

To do this according to the present invention, the

checks or other pieces are printed in continuous form with i the standard indicia, and while still in such form are afterprinted seriatim by one or more printing units. The printing units may be provided with the usual font -of characters or with special characters and the printing may be performed with ordinary and/or special ink or transfer material according to the requirements. Thereafter, the continuous strips are severed into separate check-s or pieces and are stacked and bound for distribution and use. The after-printing is preferably performed by settable wheels carrying on their peripheries letter and/ or number `and/ or symbol type faces.

According to the present invention, the after-printing for each kind of workpiece is controlled by a prepared card such as a tabulating card having punch holes so positioned that when presented to an interpreting `or sensing mechanism they -will control the setting of the printing Wheels in one or more printing units and determine the number of checks or pieces to be after-printed. The cards for the` various kinds of Workpieces are stacked softhat after the wheel setting is performed according to one card the next card is presented to the 'scanningmechansm In one -form of my invention, the continuous strip is accurately and positively advanced intermittently lto the printing unit or uni-ts by a longitudinal row of feed perforations usually in one margin of the `str-ip engaging suitable pin bearing devices `such as a wheel or belt. The feeding oper-ations of the strip may be controlled coordinately with the operations of printing units so that the strip of workpi-eces is station-ary while the after-printing :is being done.

Thus it is merely necessary, according to this invention, 4for the printer -to have on hand a supply of preprinted checks or pieces with indicia general to all accounts and a punched card for each account and use the latter when filling an order for personalized checks or a reorder thereof at any time.

According to -the present invention, the 4position of the lines of after-printing on the ychecks lmay be controlled by adjusting the printing unit or units longitudinally `along the path of travel of the strip, or by forming a loop :in the web between adjacent printing units. Thus the `imprints `may be located in any desired position of a check for instance, from the uppermost transverse margin to t-he lowermost.

The printing units may include a printing wheel for each letter-space across the check and therefore the after- -printing may be done on any place on the check from one edge tothe other.

In many cases only a single ply preprint strip is afterprinted. H-owever, in the other cases, particularly deposit slips, it is desired to have severa-l copies of each transaction and, therefore, the strip will be multi-ply.

In another form of my invention disclosed herein, the Vpunch cards representing the data applicable to individual accounts are stacked in a card reader. When the first card is read, the data therefrom is stored in a datastorage unit and, when the lstoring is completed, the printingy wheels are set according to the data stored for that particular card. When this is completed, the feed mechanism for the continuous printed strip is started to advance the strip, the starting position of the strip having been predetermined manually. When the strip has advanced a predetermined distance, the printing mechanism for that line is operated and one line of :printing 4is produced on the strip without stopping the strip. As the strip continues to move and the place on the :strip to receive the second line of printing reaches the pr-inting line of the Isecond group of type wheels, the second line is printed While-the strip is still moving, and these printing operations arerepeated as check after check on the continuous strip passes under the prin-ting wheels until the desired number of checks with that particular indicia has been printed. The number of checks printed having been counted on a descending counting7 device which was set to a predetermined position by the data storage unit according to data on the first card, when the descending counter reaches Zero the printing operation stops.

In the meantime, the lsecond account card has been read and the data has been stored in the storage unit, ready to be transferred to the printing wheels and descending counter. Immediately after the printing wheels have been reset and the descending counter set to the number of checks to be imprinted, the feed mechanism lis again started and the advancement of the preprinted strip and printing operations, as ydetermined by the second account card, again resumes unt-il the descending counter reaches zero position and a predetermined number of checks with the indicia for the second account has been printed. These operations continue -as long as cards are presented to the card reader and data is stored in the data storage unit.

ThisV second form of my invention is advantageous and usually preferable because with it a great deal of time is `saved `in the printing operations, since the advance- .ment lof the strip of checks does not have to be interrupted for the printing operations. Another advantage of this second form is that by controlling 4the point in the cycle of` operations at which the printing is performed, the positions of the lines of printing on the check may 'oe varied relative to each other and relative to the check itself, .thus adapting the machine to different styles ofV rcheck forma-t. A further advantage Iis that by changing Y the linear speed at which the lprinted `st-ri-p of checks passes through the printing units, checks or other documents having different dimensions from leading to trailing edge may be handled in the same machine and the printed lines may be caused to fall Where desired.

Other features and advantages will hereinafter appear.

In the accompanying drawings:

FIGURE l shows a continuous strip of workpieces printed according to the present invention and before the Workpieces have been severed from the continuous strip.

FIG. 2 `is a view like FIG. 1 but shows superposed Icontinuous strips to provide a plurality of sets 4of :assembled workpieces.

FG. 3 is a schematic view of apparatus tha-t may be employed for printing strips of checks or the like, such as the strip shown in FIG. 1 according to one form of the present invention.

HG. 4 is a fragmentary view showing lapparatus which may be used for printing :and assembling the strips shown in FIG. 2-only the introductory and delivery ends of the apparatus being shown, the vintermediate portions being the same as in FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 is a detail sectional view showing the belt for feeding the continuous strip yand the driving means therefor.

FIG. 6 lis -a schematic view showing another form of apparatus which may be employed for printing continuous strips of checks and the like according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a front elevation of a descending counter and switch which may be used with the form of the invention shown in FIG. 6.

HG. 8 is a side view of the descending counter and switch shown in iFlG. 7.

The method of this invention as it applies to print-ing bank checks will first be described.

The first step is to print by conventional means a large supply of continuous strips, such as the strip 1@ shown in FG. l which contains la succession of printed checks having indicia which is common to Ithe individual checks of many kinds for instance, the name of the bank and other indicia such as shown. The continuous strips of checks are stored until needed.

The second step is to prepare a printing control card, such as a tabulating card, having punch holes indicative of specific indici-a relating Vto a particular customer or account and indicative of the number of checks to be printed successively for that customer or account.

A similar control card is prepared for each customer or I account and these are stacked in a card-sensing unit indic ing units. The continuous preprinted strip l0 is then fed into an auxiliary printing machine 12 having a plurality of printing units one for each line to be printed.

FIG. 3 is a schematic view in which there are shown two printing units f3 and ld to which the preprinted strip itl may be fed to receive the after-printing as controlled by the punched cards. These printing units may be of the type disclosed and described in detail in the patent to Rabenda, No. 2,569,829, issued October 2, 1951, either as disclosed therein or as modified to operateV in the man'- ner disclosed and described in detail in the aforementioned Daly patent in which an impression member stri xes the strip for effecting printing Contact with the type wheels rather than shifting the type wheels relative to a stationary platen as disclosed in the Rabenda patent. The end of the strip lt) may be taken from a supply roll l5 and may be guided through the printing machine 12 by a paper table 16. Preferably the feeding of the strip is controlled by marginally punched holes 17 therein which engage pin-carrying feeding bands l and 19. The strip 10 is advanced step-by-step at check-length intervals by d intermittently operated feeding means and is initially placed on the feeding band 18 so that the line of the check to be imprinted will register with the printing elements of the printing unit 13 when the strip cornes to rest. It is preferable that both printing units 13. and 14- operate simultaneously, and in order that the line of print from the unit i4 may fall on the desired printing line of the check,

the apparatus is arranged so that the relative position between the check to be printed and the printing unit id can be varied.`

This may be accomplished as shown in FIG. 3 by providing a loop 2l in the strip between the printing units i3 and 1d and regulating the length of the loop so that the position of the check to be printed by the unit 14 can be advanced or retracted when threading the web through the printing machine to cause the line of print and the printing line to coincide. The extent of the loop may be controlled by a pin wheel 22 adjustably carried in a slotted bearing plate 23.

The printing units i3 and 14, as seen in the aforementioned Rabenda or Daly patents, are preferably of the type comprising a row` of Wheels bearing type faces on their peripheries and suitable mechanism to position the type Wheels under the control of a punched card so that at each operation of the printing units 13 and ilda single line of type impressions is made by each of the printing units. When the type wheels are positioned, impact devices, such as disclosed in the aformentioned Daly patent, function to cause ink carried by the type faces or transfer material carried by an interposed ribbon to print the lines on the check. After the first and second lines, in the example given, have been printed on the check, the feed mechanism may advance the strip of checks one check-length and bring the next checks into position to be printed.

According to the present invention, the next step in the method is to separate the continuous strip into individual checks which may be stacked as shown in FIG. 3 where checks of the same kind may be collected in groups and bound together or otherwise disposed of. This may be accomplished by providing a cutter 24 which may be adjusted to register with the line (delineated or not) between adjacent checks. The marginal edge of the strip having the feed holes ll7 may be removed before the strip is cut into check lengths by known cutter mechanism 25 or it may be allowed to remain on the checks and be used for binding the checks into book form.

As indicated above, the number of checks to be printed is also controlled by the punched cards, and this may be accomplished by having the punching on the card control a descending totalizer, as more fully described hereinafter, for each printing unit operated by the impressions made by its printing unit so that if twenty checks of the same kind are required the descending totalizer will be set for twenty and when it reaches Zero it will temporarily interrupt the operation of the printing unit.

T he data interpreting machine lili Within which the punchedcards are placed is set up so that after the printing wheeis have been set on the unit, the setting remains locked. When the desired number of impressions has beenmade `by the first printing unit 1&3, the next card can be positioned to be sensed to set the descending totalizer and to set the type wheels for the first printing unit 13 for the next group of checks to be afterprinted. When the de` sired number of impressions has been made by unit i4 the type wheels for the unit lili are reset for the next group of checks.

Thus, by successively setting the printing units, no loss of checks will be incurred by the change-over from one kind of check to another.

According to the present invention, one of the printing units 113 or M has on its type wheels printing characters which are` specially formed for magnetic ink character recognition and the other unit may have type faces or ordinary characters. Thus, in the examples shown in FG. l, the name and address of the bank customer may be printed as at 2d in ordinary type with ordinary ink or ink ribbon, while the branch and account number indicated at 27', ABA bank number indicated at 2d and the routing for bank clearance purposes indicated at 29 will` be printed with magnetic material so that those items can be sensed on a magnetic ink character recognition machine. it is a matter of choice and convenience whether the magnetic characters are printed by the unit i3 or by the unit ltd. p

it should be understood, `of course, that while, in describing the method of this invention, bank checks are referred to, the method may be used for other purposes where a preprinted form is to have after-printing made thereon in limited quantities, and in this connection one such different use in that of preparing `bank deposit slips in limited quantities. The method as it applies to such use will now be described in connection with FIGS. 2 and 4 of the drawings.

in this embodiment of the invention, the workpiece includes an original copy strip 3d, a transfer strip 31 and a copy strip 32, and if additional copies are required extra transfer and copy strips may be provided. As shown, these are prepared in continuous form and contain indicia which is common to the individual deposit slips of many kinds, for instance, the name of the bank and other indicia such as shown. t

The continuous strips are preferably in separate packages such as rolls or zigzag packs, and when needed the strips are guided to the auxiliary printing machine 12 where the record and copy sheet is aligned by pin wheels and the transfer strips are adhesively secured together by mechanism 33 at the margin to make joined sets of strips. The continuous strips are fed over the paper table 16 and their feeding movements are controlled by marginally punched holes i7 in the strips which engage pin-carrying feeding bands 18 and 19 as in the form of the invention shown in FIG. 3. The feeding and imprintingV operations are performed in the same manner as referred to in con nection with PEG. 3, the printing units 1.3 and 14 suc-` cessively operating on the pile of strips, the original strip being printed by ink applied to the printing wheels or through a transfer member and the copy strip having the same indicia printed on it through the medium of the interposed transfer strip.

The other steps of the method are the same as described above in connection with FIG. 3, but the end product in this situation is a plurality of groups of deposit slip booklets ali of the same kind and identified with a particular customer or a particular account, each top sheet of the booklet having the preprinting, one line of after-printing in ordinary type, and the other line of after-printing with magnetic ink character recognition type.

The method involved in the other form of the present invention may be carried out by apparatus disclosed in FiG. 6.

in this form of the invention, the punch card containing data particular to a customer or a customers account is read by a card reader Sii and stored in a data storage unit 51. These units may be any suitable punch card reading and data interpreting components having data storage facility such as disclosed in the aforementioned Rabenda or Daly patents. At the proper time the data for a particular card is transferred to an alphabetical type wheel setter 52 and a numeral type wheel setter 53 which positions type wheels 5d and S5 respectively so thatthe characters to be printed are brought into printing position in lines. These components are the same as those einployed in the previous embodiment of the invention and as disciosed in the Rabenda or Daly patents mentioned above. A continuous strip 56 of checks is fed by pinbearing tractors 5'7 and 58 located respectively at opposite ends of the machine to engage marginal feed holes in the strip, such as the feed holes 17 shown in FIGS. l and 2, and thus positively control the feeding and stopping of the preprinted strip. Between the strip 55 and the type wheels d'and 55 there are located suitable inking means such as ribbons 59 and @t7 and these may be advanced in known ways to present fresh surfaces to the printing lines 5dr-rz and 55a represented by the arrows in FG. 6.

impact for causing the characters to be printed on the strip 56 is provided by impression means 6i and 62 which include hammers 6in and @2a located under the printing lines 54a and 55a respectively which, through v known mechanism, may be caused to strike the underside of the paper at the printing lines and cause the transfer of ink or the like from the ribbons to the paper.

The hammers 61a and 62a are moved toward and return from the strip 56 with such speed that it is not necessary to cause the strip 56 to come to rest or even to change its rate of travel during the printing operation. Thus, according to the present invention now being described the loss of time which would be incurred if it were necessary toV stop and start the paper for each printing operation is avoided. Further, by properly controlling the points in the cycle at which the impression means 6i and 32 are respectively operated, the reiative positions of the two lines of printing on a workpiece (a check for instance) can be optionaily selected and the lines of printing may be closer together than would be otherwise possible because of the spacing of the type wheels made necessary by their size.

Suitable means for carrying out the method of this invention are shown in PEG. 6, in which the tractor 57 is driven through suitable power transmitting means 63 by an electric motor so that the paper strip 56 will have a determinate linear speed. The tractor 57 may be coupied to the tractor 53 by gearing 65 to operate in unison, thereby avoiding any slack condition of the strip 56 as it passes under the type wheels.

Preferably, the continuous strip 55 of preprinted checks is supplied to the machine in a zigzag foided stack ed placed at the introductory side of the machine. in introducing the strip E36 from a stack to the apparatus, the strip is placed on the pins of the tractor feed S7 with the blank lines of the strip to be imprinted in predetermined positions relative to the tractor feed, as will be more fully explained below. When the apparatus is to be started, the data storage unit causes the wheels 5ft and 55 to be set and locked in alignment, and when this has been done the motor 64 is started and shortly thereafter the impression means o2 is operated to print the lower line (numeral lin-e) on'the check. When the strip do has traveled a predetermined distance, the upper ,line (alphabeticai line) is brought to the printing line 54a and the impression means @il is actuated, thus completing the imprinting of that particular check.

As the strip .'tn continues to travel without interruption, the operations are repeated until the required number of checks has been printed, at which time the feeding of the strip Se is stopped and the data storage means become operative to reset the numeral type wheel and the alphabetical type wheel 5d in accordance wtih the data read from the second punch card. lin this situation, tre lower line on the next check has not quite reached the immoral wheels 55 and the upper line of printing on the {irst check has just passed the printing point Etta.

According to the embodiment of the present invention now being described, the imprinting operations may advantageously be controlled by the same means which controls the advancing of the strip 5o. This is accompiis'ned as shown by providing control means operated by the motor 64 which, it will be remembered, drives the tractors 57 and As diagrammatically shown in FG. 6, the control means comprises a shaft 67 driven by the motor 64 which makes one revolution for each workpiece (check) imprinted. Switch operating means including a disk 63 having a lobe @i9 is secured to the shaft 67. The lobe 69 which engages a switch 7i? connected by a circuit 7l to the impression device 62 causes the latter to operate and thus, ifthe leading edge of the strip S6 has been placed in the proper position on the tractor 57, the lower line on the check will be printed when the lobe 69 closes the switch 7i?. The disk 65 may be adjustably mounted on the shaft 67 to determine the point in the cycie of operations at which the impression device 62 is actuated. -ioweven since this can be controlled by the selective initial positioning of the strip 56 on the tractor 57, the provision for the adjustment is not essential.

To control the operation of the imprinting device 6l (for the top line i-n the example given), there is a disk 72, similar to the disk 69, having a lobe 73, similar to the lobe 69. However, in order to permit variation in the spacing between the upper and lower lines on the check, as diagrammatically shown in FIG. 6, a switch 74 connected to the .impression means 61 by a circuit 7S and mounted on an arm 'ia rotatable on the shaft 67 is adjustable arcuately about the axis of the shaft 67. Thus the point in the cycle of operations (the position `of the strip 56) at which the impression device 6i operates may be varied by adjusting the position of the switch 74 causing the upper line to be printed sooner or later depending upon whether the space between the lines is to be decreased or increased.

The position of the switch 74 may be adjusted relative to the lobe 73 by manual operation, or its position may be controlled remotely by an electric motor 76 through a circuit 77 leading to the data storage unit or elsewhere.

As stated above, when a number of checks for a particular customer or account as determined by the data on that particular customers punch card has been imprinted, the feeding of the strip 56 is stopped, the printing operation is interrupted and the setting of the type wheels for the customers checks next to be printed takes place. This may be accomplished by a descending totalizer mechanism shown in block form in FIG. 6 and shown in detail in FIGS. 7 and 8.

As shown in these gures, the control shaft 67 is provided with a worm 78 which drives a worm Wheel 79 rotatably mounted on a supporting shaft 8i). The worm wheel 79 carries a spring-pressed pawl 8i which engages a ratchet wheel 82. also rotatably mounted on the shaft 80. A switch-operating arm 83 is .secured to the ratchet wheel 82 and extends to a position where it engages a stationary.

switch 84 adapted, when operated, to open a circuit S5 leading to the motor ed which drives the control shaft 67 and also the strip feeding mechanism. When the shaft 67 rotates, the ratchet wheel 82 and switch arm 83 lare moved clockwise as shown in FIG. 7 from the switchopening position and returning thereto after a 360 revolution.

For the purpose of determining the number of checks to be printed for a particular customer, the switch arm 53 is movable independently of :the worm wheel 79 in a clockwise direction, this being permitted by reason of the pawl and yratchet connection. The ratchet wheel 32 and switch-operating arm 33 may be moved for such purpose by a worm wheel 3o driven by an irreversible worm S7 operated by astepping motor 88 which is under the control of the data storing unit. To permit the ratchet $2 and switch arm 83 to be advanced by the pawl 81 when the worm wheel 79 is rotated, a friction drive 89 is provided between the worm wheel '86, the switch-operating arm 83 and the ratchet wheel S2.

Assuming that the apparatus is designed to pri-nt a maximum of one hundred checks for any customer orV account, the ratio between the worm 78 and worm wheel 79 is 100:1. It follows, therefore, that if the switchoperating arm is in a zero position with the switch 84 open and that the motor 64 is energized by other means, for every one hundred'revolutions of the shaft 67, the worm wheel 79, ratchet wheel S2 and switch-operating arm S3, the latter will make one revolution, the switch arm returning to its zero position, and one hundred checks will have been imprinted, since one check is printed for each revolution of the shaft 67.

It also follows that if the switch-operating arm 83 is advanced independently of the worm wheel 79 more or less, before the motor 64 is started and the lshaft 67 is rotated, a fewer number of checks will be printed depending on how far the switch-operating arm 33 has been advancedclockwise before the shaft 67 begins to rotate. When the switch-operating arm 83 again reaches its zero or circuit-opening position, during the rotation of the shaft 67 the strip-feeding stops and a determinate number of checks will have been printed.

As a practical matter, itis convenient to imprint checks in multiples of ten for each particular customer, i.e., ten for some customers,`twenty for others, and so forth, and hence the ratchet wheel 82 is provided with ten teeth and the stepping motor 88 is controlled by the data storing unit to move the worm wheel, switch-operating arm and ratchet wheel in increments of 36 in determining the number of checks to be printed.

To give an example, let it be assumed that the switchoperating arm 83 is in its zero position (to which it always returns when the shaft 67 stops) and that it is desired to imprint twenty checks for the customer, the data of whose card has been stored in the storage unit. The type wheels having been set to print indicia pertinent thereto, the data storage unit will cause the stepping motor to opcrate eight `steps during which time the pawl 81 will click over eight teeth on the ratchet wheel 82 to the position shown in dotted lines in FIG. 7, thereby in effect cancelling outthe printing of eighty checks and leaving the switch arm to advance 72 resulting in the printing of twenty checks before the switch 84 is opened.

To startthe operations, even though the switch 84 is in open circuit position, a relay switch 90 is energized by the data storage unit -to shunt the switch S4 momentarily, or at least u-ntil the end of the switch-operating arm 83 clears the switch 84 and permits the latter to take control of the circuit to the motor 64.

It xshould be understood that, in the broader aspects of this invention, other mechanism for counting the number of checks being imprinted and interrupting the imprinting operations than that above described may be employed.

Of course, if it should be desired that thenumber of checks to be printed for a customer should be in units of ve, f or instance, ten, fifteen, twenty, twenty-five, etc., the ratchet wheel 82 would be provided with twenty teeth and the stepping motor would move the latter and the switch arm S3 in increments of 18.

One of the features of the present invention, particularly the form being described, is the provision of a method whereby checks and the like of different lengths, i.e., different distances from the top edge to the bottom edge, may be imprinted.

According to the present invention, this is accomplished by selectively varying the relative speed of travel of the preprinted strip and the cycle of operations of the control means 67 so that while the control means makes one revolution for each check or the like, the amount of the strip which is fed during the time required for the control means to make one revolution may be increased or decreased. In other words, if the relative speed between the strip and the control shaft results in advancing the strip 31/2, for a check having a length of 31/2" and it is desired to imprint on a workpiece having 7, it is merely necessaryto double the speed of travel of the strip. If this is done, the only other matter which need be taken into consideration is the adiustment of the switch 74 which controls the operation of the impression means 61 in order to cause the second line of imprinting to occur at the proper place on the 7 check, for it will be remembered that the position of the first line to be imprinted is controlled by the initial positioning of the strip on the tractor feed 57.

The switch '74 and its carrying arm 74a maybe adjusted remotely by operation of the motor 76 and the change speed power transmitting unit 63 may be adjusted in known ways by operation of a lever 63a for instance.

To avoid confusion in describing the method of the present invention referred to in connection with FiG. 6, the worksheet strip has been referred to in the singular. It should be understood, ofcourse, that the strip may be composed of superposed layers of paper with interposed strips of transfer material to make multiple copies; and while checks have been referred to for convenience, 1t should be understood that deposit slips and other workpieces may be imprinted both in a single strip or multrlayer strips.

After a punch card has been read by the card reader Sil and the data stored in the data storage unit 51, the card is removed from the card reader and placed in a convenient receptacle where it may be stored, along with other cards, in order for instance according to the name of the customer. When a customer requires another batch of checks, it is merely necessary for the operator to remove the customers card from the receptacle and place it on the stack in the card reader so that when it is reached it will be read and data stored and the other operations performed to print the new batch of checks for the customer.

Thus it will be seen that the present invention completely obviates the necessity for preliminary and preparatory work such as typesetting, proofreading, platemaking and make-ready which would be required by previous methods of afterprinting checks and the like.

By employing settable type-carrying wheels and locking means therefor, the printing characters are automatically positioned in perfect alignment for the precise requirements for printing operations. This is an important consideration in connection with mechanized check handling,

otherwise referred to as magnetic ink character recognition, and thus the method and apparatus of this invention is able to fulfill standard requirements set by the American Bankers Association as standard practices which are increasingly coming into universal use in the banks of this country. The requirements so laid down are of such a precise nature that they cannot be met by normal printing methods and equipment. The methods and apparatus disclosed herein meet these strict and precise requirements on a fully automated basis and in a practical and economical manner and at a substantially lower cost.

Variations and modifications may be made within the scope of the claims and portions of the improvements may be used without others.

I claim:

1. Apparatus for printing a plurality of groups of items each having indicia commonto all the groups and also unique indicia of a diiferent kind for each group in relatively small quantities for each group, said items being joined to form aV continuous strip, said apparatus comprising: means for continuously feeding said continuous strip to a printing position and beyond, means for receiving a plurality of punch cards and for sensing therefrom data determinative of the unique indicia of one group of items and data determinative of the number of items of said group from one of said cards, printing means including a plurality of individually settable non-traveling type carrying elements and including means responsive to the indicia determinative data from said sensing means for setting up said type elements to indicate a line of unique indicia to be printed, impression means for causing momentary printing contact between said non-traveling type elements and said continuously moving strip, power means responsive to operation of said sensing means for causing operation of said feeding means and said impression means to print consecutively a plurality of items of said one group, on succeeding portions of said strip, with said indicia unique to said one group in predetermined relation kwith said common indicia, and means responsive to the number determinative data from said sensing means and responsive to operation of said power means for predetermining the number of items of said group to be printed, and for interrupting the operation of said power means ,after said v predetermined number of items has been printed, said sensing means being operative, upon interruption of said power means to sense another of said punch cards having data detcrminative of the unique -indicia of another group of items and data determinative of the number of items of said other group for causing another setting of said type carrying elements and another settinfy of said predetermining and interrupting means, and for causing resumption of operation of said power means to print a predetermined number of items of said other group.

2. Apparatus as set forth in claim l further including data storage'means for receiving the various data from said sensing means and for storing said data for subsequent use, said sensing means being operable to transmit said datato `said data storage means one'printing cycle in advance of the indicia being printed at any given moment, whereby :a subsequent punch card is being sensed and the data `therefrom `being stored while said printing means `is printing `the unique indicia indicated by the data from a preceding punch card.

3. Apparatus for printing a plurality of groups of items each having indicia common to all the groups and also unique indicia of a different kind for each group in Vrelatively small quantities for each group, said items being joined to form a continuous strip, said apparatus cornprising: means for continuously feeding said continuous strip to aprinting position and beyond, means for receiving a plurality of punch cards and for sensing therefrom datadeterminative of the unique indicia of one group of items and data determinative of the number of items of said group from one of said cards, printing means including a plurality of individually settable non-traveling type carrying elements and including means responsive to the indicia determinative data from said sensing means for setting up said type elements to indicate a line of unique indicia to be printed, impression means for causing momentary printing contact between said non-traveling type elements and said continuously moving strip, pre-settable Y counter means responsive to the number determinative data from said sensing means for predetermining the number of items of said group to be printed, power means responsive to operation of said sensing means for causing operation of said feeding means, said impression means and said counter means to print a predetermined number of items of said one group, on succeeding portions of said strip, with said indicia unique to said one group in predetermined relation with said common indicia, and Vmeans responsive to operation of said counter means for interrupting said power means after said predetermined number of items has been printed, said sensing means being operative to sense another of said punch cards having data determinative of the unique indicia of another group of iterns and data determinative of the number of items of said other group for causing another setting of said type carrying elements and another setting of said counter means, and for causing resumption of operation of said power means to print a predetermined number of items of said other group.

4. Apparatus for printing a plurality of groups of items each having indicia common to all the groups and aiso unique indicia of a different kind for each group in relatively'` small quantities for each group, said items being joined to form a continuous strip, said apparatus comprising: means for continuously feeding said continuous strip to a printing position and beyond, means for receiving a plurality of punch cards and for sensing therefrom data determinative of the unique indicia of one group of items and data determinative of the number of items of said group from one of said cards, printing means including a plurality of individually settabie non-traveling type carrying elements and including means responsive to the indicia determinative data from said sensing means for setting up said type elements to indicate a line of Vunique indicia to be printed, movable impression means intermittently operable to cause momentary lprinting contact between said non-traveling type elements and said continuously moving strip, power means responsive to operation of said sensing means for causing continuous operation of said feeding means and intermittent operation of .said `impression tmeans to print consecutively a plurality of items of said `one group on succeeding por-tions of said istrip with said indicia unique to said one group in predetermined relation with said common indicia, and means responsive to the number determinative data from said sensing means and responsive to operation of said power means for predetermining the number of items of said group to be printed and for interrupting said power means after said predetermined number of items has been printed, said sensing means being operative to sense another of said punch cards having data determinative of the unique indicia of another group of items and data determinative of the number of items Vof said other group for causing another setting of said type carrying elements and another setting of said predetermining and interrupting means and for causing resumption of operation of said power means to print a predetermined number of items of said other group.

5. Apparatus for printing a pluraiity of groups of items each having indicia common to all the groups and also having two spaced apart lines of unique indicia of a different kind for each group in relatively small quantities for each group, said items being joined'to form a Vcontinuous strip, said apparatus comprising: means for con-V tinuously feeding said continuous strip to printing positions and beyond, means for receiving a plurality of punch cards and for sensing therefrom data determinative of the unique `indicia 4of two lines of print of one group of items and data determinative of the number of items of said group from one of said cards, printing means including two spaced apart printing units each including a plurality of individually settable non-traveling type carrying elements and each includingmeans responsive to the indicia determinative data for a selected one of the lines of print from said sensing means for setting up said type elements to indicate a line of unique indicia to be printed iby each Iprinting unit, `impression means for each printing unit for causing momentary printing Contact between the non-traveiing type elements of each of said printing units and said continuousiy moving strip, power means responsive to operation of said sensing means for causing operation o said feeding means and said impression means to print consecutively a plurality of items of said one group, on succeeding portions of said strip, with the lines of said indicia unique to said one group in predetermined spaced relation with each other and in collective predetermined relation with said common indicia, and means responsive to the number determinative data from said sensing means and responsive to operation of said power means for predetermining the number of items of said group to be printed and for interrupting said power means after said predetermined number of items has been printed, said sensing means being operative, upon interruption of said power means, to sense another of said punch cards having data Vdeterminative of the unique of said predetermining and interrupting means, and for causing resumption of operation of said power means to print a predetermined number of items of said other group.

6. Apparatus as set forth in claim 5 further including control means operated by said power means and thereby operatively coordinated with said feeding means for causing sequential operation of said impression means of each of said printing units whereby the lines of unique indicia are printed seriatim on each of the items of said group and said lines of indicia are printed closer together on each item than the spacing between said printing units.

7. Apparatus as set forth in claim 6 further including settable means for varying the operative coordination of the impression means of one of said printing units with the feeding means relative to the impression means of another of said printing units whereby the predetermined spaced relation of the lines of indicia may be changed to vary the format of said items.

8. Apparatus as set forth in claim '7 wherein said settable means for varying the operative coordina-tion of the impression means of said one of said printing units includes means responsive to additional data sensed from a punch card by said sensing means which additional data is determinative of the predetermined spaced relation of fthe line of unique indicia printed by said one printing unit.

9. Apparatus as set forth in claim further including means for changing the speed of operation of said feeding means independently of said power means whereby the collective predetermined relation of the lines of unique indicia with said common indicia may be changed to permit varia-'tion of the length of the items being printed from leading to trailing edge.

10. Apparatus as set forth in claim 5 further including control means operated by said power means and thereby operatively coordinated with said feeding means for causing sequential operation of said impression means of each of said printing units to cause said printing units to print the lines of unique indicia seriatim on each of the items of said group, settable means for varying the operative coordination of the impression means of one of said printing units with the feeding means relative to the impression means of another of said printing units, and means for changing the speed of operation of said feeding means independently of said power means whereby both the predetermined spaced relation of the lines of unique indicia on a given size item, and the collective predetermined relation of the lines .of unique indicia with said common indicia may be changed to vary the format of the items and to permit variation in they length of the items from leading to trailing edge.

11. Apparatus for printing a plurality of items each having common indicia and also having two spaced apart `lines of unique indicia, said items being joined to form a continuous strip, said apparatus comprising: means for continuously feeding said continuous strip to a printing position and beyond, printing means including twogspaced apart printing units each including a plurality of individually settable non-traveling type carrying elements and including means for setting up said type elements to indicate a line of unique indicia to be printed by each printing unit, impression meanstfor each printing unit for causing momentary printing contact between the nontraveling type elements of each of said printing units and said continuously moving strip, power means for `causing operation of said feeding means and said impression means to print consecutively a plurality of items, on succeeding portions of said continuous strip, with the lines of said unique indicia in predetermined spaced relation with each other and in collective predetermined relation with said common indicia, and control means operated by said power means and thereby operatively coordinated with said feeding means for causing sequential operation of said impression means for each of said printing units whereby the lines of unique indicia are printed seriatim on each of the items and are printed closer together on each item than the spacing between said printing units.

1'?. Apparatus as set forth in claim 11 :further includ-` ing settable means for varying the operative coordination of the impression means of oneof said printing units with the feeding means relative to the impression means of another of said printing units whereby the predetermined spaced relation of the lines of unique indicia may be changed to vary the format of said items.

13. Apparatus as set forth in claim` 11 further including means for changing the speed of operation of said feeding means independently of said power means whereby the collective predetermined relation of the lines of unique indicia with said common indicia may be changed to permit variation ofthe length of the items being printed from leading to trailing edge. i

References Sited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,418,481 s/zz Sherman 101 426 1,904,254 4/33 Scranton 101 2,102,689 12/37Y Fischer 101--426 2,220,903 11/40 Higgins et a1. 101-92 2,290,871 7/4-2 Freedman 101-92 X 2,321,057 6/43 Weiss 101-426 2,531,873 11/50 Daly 101-19 2,548,136 4/51 Auer 101-288 X 2,605,699 8/52 Gollwitzer lOl-94 2,655,098 10/53 Dutro et al. `lOl-19 2,697,396 12/54 Gollwitzer et al 101-19 2,758,537 8/56 Janaushek et al.. 101e-19 2,770,188 11/56 Nolan 101-93 2,787,215 4/57 lvietzner 101-288 2,879,712 3/59 Mark 101-95 2,889,758 6/59 Bolton 101-426 X 2,935,016 5/60 Miller 10i-92 X 2,941,188 6/60` Fle'chtner et al.

FOREIGN PATENTS 3,139,025 6/64 France. 3,120,178 8/59 Netherlands.

ROBERT E. PULEREY, Primary Examiner. DAVlD KLEIN, WILLIAM B. PENN, Examiners. 

1. APPARATUS FOR PRINTING A PLURALITY OF GROUPS OF ITEMS EACH HAVING INDICIA COMMON TO ALL THE GROUPS AND ALSO UNIQUE INDICIA OF A DIFFERENT KIND FOR EACH GROUP IN RELATIVELY SMALL QUANTITIES FOR EACH GROUP, SAID ITEMS BEING JOINED TO FORM A CONTINUOUS STRIP, SAID APPARATUS COMPRISING: MEANS A CONTINUOUSLY FEEDING SAID CONTINUOUS STRIP TO A PRINTING POSITION AND BEYOND, MEANS FOR RECEIVING A PLURALITY OF PUNCH CARDS AND FOR SENSING THEREFROM DATA DETERMINATIVE OF THE UNIQUE INDICIA OF ONE GROUP OF ITEMS AND DATA DETERMINATIVE OF THE NUMBER OF ITEMS OF SAID GROUP FROM ONE OF SAID CARDS, PRINTING MEANS INCLUDING A PLURALITY OF INDIVIDUALLY SETTABLE NON-TRAVELING TYPE CARRYING ELEMENTS AND INCLUDING MEANS RESPONSIVE TO THE INDICIA DETERMINATIVE DATA FROM SAID SENSING MEANS FOR SETTING UP SAID TYPE ELEMENTS TO INDICATE A LINE OF UNIQUE INDICIA TO BE PRINTED, IMPRESSION MEANS FOR CAUSING MOMENTARY PRINTING CONTACT BETWEEN SAID NON-TRAVELING TYPE ELEMENTS AND SAID CONTINUOUSLY MOVING STRIP, POWER MEANS RESPONSIVE TO OPERATIVE OF SAID SENSING MEANS FOR CAUSING OPERATION OF SAID FEEDING MEANS AND SAID IMPRESSION MEANS TO PRINT CONSECUTIVELY A PLURALITY OF ITEMS OF SAID ONE GROUP, ON SUCCEEDING PORTIONS OF SAID STRIP, WITH SAID INDICIA UNIQUE TO SAID ONE GROUP IN PREDETERMINED RELATION WITH SAID COMMON INDICIA, AND MEANS RESPONSIVE TO THE NUMBER DETERMINATIVE DATA FROM SAID SENSING MEANS AND RESPONSIVE TO OPERATION OF SAID POWER MEANS FOR PREDEITERMINING THE NUMBER OF ITEMS OF SAID GROUP TO BE PRINTED, AND FOR INTERRUPTING THE OPERATION OF SAID POWER MEANS AFTER SAID PREDETERMINED NUMBER OF ITEMS HAS BEEN 